


Biology, Clementines, and the Movement of Stars

by flourwings



Category: Homestuck
Genre: F/F, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-05
Updated: 2016-01-05
Packaged: 2018-05-12 00:41:10
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,490
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5647618
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/flourwings/pseuds/flourwings
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“Hey, do you want to partner with me and Rose for the semester project? We’re looking for a third person for our group.”</p><p>You look up at her sharply. Misinterpreting your suddenly alarmed expression, she cocks her head to the side like a confused dog, and says, “You know Rose, right?”</p><p>You stare at her. This is a bad idea. This is a colossally bad idea.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Biology, Clementines, and the Movement of Stars

**Author's Note:**

  * For [digimaniac33](https://archiveofourown.org/users/digimaniac33/gifts).



> Hey digimaniac33, hope you enjoy!

Porrim is talking to you about sex again, and despite your exercise-sore legs and irreparably weather-mussed hair you kind of wish that you were still outside doing endless shuttle runs in the pouring rain.

“Don’t get me wrong,” she says, “I’m not saying she was bad in bed! Quite the opposite, in fact. But I just don’t have time to sort out someone else’s internalized misogyny, do you know what I mean?”

“Um,” you say. “Not really, no.” You’re sitting in the middle of the mostly deserted cafeteria, waylaid between lacrosse practice and the safe haven of the girls’ locker room where you usually spend your lunchtime. Latula Pyrope, across the table, gave you a high five when you sat down and is silently jamming out to something electronica on her bright red headphones. Next to Latula, Damara Megido is eating what looks like a peanut butter and jelly sandwich with the crusts cut off. So far you’ve been mostly successful at avoiding eye contact with her.

“Oh, that’s fine, sweetie.” Porrim pauses to reapply her already-perfect black lipstick. “Refresher?” she asks, holding the tube out to you.

“No thank you. I’m going to shower in a minute,” you say.

“So, have you hooked up with cute bio class girl yet?” she asks casually, tucking the lipstick back into her bra.

You look around wildly. “Porrim!” The reprimand comes out a little squeakier than you intended.

“Is that by any chance a triumphant tone of voice?” she asks.

You fiddle with the strap of your duffel bag. “No.”

“Oh, Kanaya,” she says, and stands up from the table. A soft hand on your shoulder, she smiles sadly down at you. You blink a little under her beautiful and motherly gaze. She shakes her head. “If you’re waiting for fate to introduce you, dear,” she says, “you’ll be waiting forever.”

Wisdom imparted, she glides away between two rows of laminate-top tables. As usual, she has no lunch tray and carries nothing with her.

Latula stands up to follow her. “Do you want the rest of my salad?” she asks, voice a little too loud, headphones still blaring faintly.

“No thanks,” you say. “I don’t really… eat food.”

“Okay! Later!”

You’re left alone at the table with Damara.

“Um,” you say. There is a long pause, in which Damara continues to eat her sandwich. “I like your dress,” you manage finally.

“Fuck off,” she says.

You fuck off.

\--

Bio class girl’s name is Rose Lalonde, and you’re having difficulty making first contact.

She’s early to class, as usual, though not as early as you. You avoid meeting her eye as she walks past your lab station to sit in the next row. She has arrived with her lab partner, Jade Harley, in tow, and you proceed to unabashedly eavesdrop on their conversation.

“He seemed pretty freaked out by the tentacles,” Jade says. She’s half-laughing, as if despite herself.

“Yes, well,” says Rose. She pulls a clementine out of her bag and sets it on the table. “I suspect he’ll move past it.”

“I dunno, Rose,” Jade says, sobering. “You know, it’s not very sisterly to scare him like that. Besides, you know that he’ll only use it against you!”

You shuffle your papers around. You wonder if Rose ever watches the back of your head during class. You wonder if the sunlight from the window makes a halo out of your hair the same way it does with hers, sometimes. She begins to peel her clementine.

“Please,” she says. “It was just a summoning spell from Feferi’s book.”

“Feferi’s book is some serious shit!” Jade says.

You’re organizing the completed worksheets in your folder, trying to look busy. You decide against arranging all your pencils and pens by size.

“It is pretty serious shit,” says Rose, a wry smile in her voice. “But it’s also very fun.”

Jade sighs, loudly.

“Okay, class!” Mr. Droog says from the front of the room, his voice as sharp as his suit. You’ve opened your notebook to take notes, and you almost smear a long pencil line across the page as you startle. “Today we’re doing the stages of mitosis.”

“We’re not done talking about this,” Jade whispers at Rose as the class quiets down. You look over at them under the guise of getting your textbook out of your backpack, trying to hear better.

“Okay,” Rose whispers back, disassembled clementine in her hands, and smiles a smile that almost blinds you with its beauty, and leans in to give Jade a kiss.

Oh.

When they pull apart, Rose looks up and happens to meet your eye. You jump slightly, dropping your textbook. She eats a section of clementine.

\--

This is fine. You can deal with this.

You’ve never talked to her, really. How could you feel rejected by somebody you’ve never even given a chance to reject you? You didn’t ask her out, or confess your burgeoning feelings, or invite her to prom. Beyond the usual inanities of high school interaction, your only contact has been observational. Though not, apparently, observational enough to notice her girlfriend.

After-school practice is a nightmare.

Jade, excellent team player and first-rate goalie, dominates your attention. She trips up your feet with her very presence. You consider hating her, briefly, and then despair, as she grins at all her teammates, helps up a fallen Nepeta and gives her a friendly knock on the helmet, and howls with victory after blocking a goal.

“Maryam!” Feferi barks after you miss a fifth shot in as many tries, her Captain Voice in full force. “Take a couple laps to get your shit together and put your head on straight!”

You toss your lacrosse stick and helmet onto the bleachers and start your weary way around the perimeter of the field. It’s still raining. You’re already covered with grime and soaked to the bone, so you don’t worry about getting splashed with mud as you run. In fact, it’s kind of therapeutic, your cleated shoes making a satisfy noise each time they’re pulled up out of the sucking mud. You try to blink the rain out of your eyes, and water runs from your hair down the back of your neck, making you shiver. You try to not stare at Jade.

Slowly, time passes. You mostly get your shit together, as requested. (But though your head is on, it is anything but straight.)

Eventually, even Feferi has to admit to the fact that it’s raining too hard to continue practice. “Okay, team!” she calls out over a crack of thunder. “We can pick this up tomorrow!” She pulls her helmet off and frowns up at the sky as if it has personally offended her.

You all hustle to the locker room to towel down and change out of your soaked uniforms.

“Hey Kanaya, are you okay?” someone asks. You look over, and of course, _of course_ it’s her. You’re unsure of what to say for a moment. Jade leans against her locker and watches you with a concerned expression, hair still plastered to her forehead with rain.

“I’m alright,” you say. “Just a bit tired.”

“Oh boy, yeah, I know what you mean,” she says, turning to rummage around in her locker. You quickly strip out of your uniform and start to pull on your dry clothes while she’s still preoccupied with fitting all her gear into the cramped space. “Hey, have you started on tomorrow’s problem set for biology?”

“Um, no, not yet,” you say. “I was going to in class, but then…” But then you stared at a blank piece of paper for half an hour because you can’t wrap your head around the fact that Jade is half of an ass-kicking, magic-wielding, brain-melting, lacrosse-playing lesbian power couple with your long-time hopeless crush.

“Yeah,” she says, as if you have finished your sentence properly. “Hey, do you want to partner with me and Rose for the semester project? We’re looking for a third person for our group.”

You look up at her sharply. Misinterpreting your suddenly alarmed expression, she cocks her head to the side like a confused dog, and says, “You know Rose, right?”

You stare at her. This is a bad idea. This is a colossally bad idea.

“That sounds agreeable,” you say out of nowhere. Then, stuttering, trying to sound less like a robot, “I’m in.”

“Great!” says Jade, grinning. “Hey, I’ll see you at morning practice tomorrow!” She bangs the door of her locker closed and swings her duffle bag over one shoulder as she exits the locker room, still wearing her uniform.

It’s okay. You can deal with this, you repeat to yourself. You can deal with this. This is fine.

\--

“Wow, what a shit idea,” Latula says. You try to get up off the floor of your sister’s room and escape, but Porrim pulls you down again by the back of your sweatshirt.

“I don’t want to talk about it,” you say.

“This conversation will be therapeutic for you,” Porrim shoots back, keeping one hand bunched in the fabric of your sweatshirt as she flips through a magazine with the other, leaning casually against her bed. “It’s good to share your thoughts and feelings with others.”

“Or,” you say, “I could do none of those things, and instead work on completing tomorrow’s homework.”

“Fuck homework!” Latula says enthusiastically. She too is sitting on the floor, back against Porrim’s desk, and with her legs folded criss-cross-applesauce.

“So, how do you feel about spending more time with Rose now that you know she’s dating someone else?” Porrim asks, cutting right to the chase. You consider making another bid for freedom, but you know Porrim’s a lot stronger and faster than she looks.

“I’m not sure,” you say, instead. “I don’t think it will be too bad, as long as I avoid making a complete fool of myself.”

“Interesting,” says Porrim, and you groan. _Interesting_ is not a good sign. “Just the other day you were terrified of even greeting Rose. Do you think maybe you’re using the fact that her girlfriend will be there as a kind of security blanket? An _oh, I don’t need to worry about Rose because I don’t have a chance with her now anyways_ kind of thing?”

“Just a sec, I mean are we even sure that those two are really girlfriends?” Latula says.

“I saw them kissing!” you reply, voice plaintive.

“Well, that’s not necessarily indicative—“ Porrim starts.

“Yeah, so what?” Latula says over her, uncrossing her legs in excitement. “I mean I’m not dating your sister, and look—“ she leans over and kisses Porrim squarely on the mouth. Porrim seems relatively unfazed. In fact, Latula makes a bit of a surprised noise as Porrim angles her head slightly and deepens the kiss.

“Um,” you say after a moment. “Can I leave?”

“No,” Porrim says, pulling away and turning to face you. Latula sits back, black lipstick marks all over her mouth and looking very pleased with herself. You sigh.

“I even asked Feferi,” you say. “They’re definitely dating.” You slump down further against Porrim’s bed. “But honestly, It’s fine. Jade is very nice. I like her.”

“Like her?” Porrim says.

“You mean _like_ her like her?” Latula chimes in, with all the subtlety of a thirteen-year-old.

Oh. You didn’t really consider that. “No,” you say. “At least, I don’t think so.”

\--

You get to Biology class early, as usual. As usual, Rose and Jade arrive after you. As usual, they are talking and laughing with each other. As usual, you avoid eye contact.

This time, you are startled by the slap of a textbook on the table next to you.

“Hey,” says Jade, scooting her seat in and pushing her backpack under the table with her dirty tennis shoes.

“Hello,” you say, instinctively.

Across from you, face partially obscured by the low-hanging lab station vent, Rose folds her hands neatly in front of her. She’s wearing black nail polish, chipped on two fingers.

“Jeez,” says Jade, flipping through the textbook. “What are we even learning about today? If I have to stare at one more set of slides, I swear... You know, I’ve always preferred physics. Let me plot a graph from equations, not draw pictures of messy petri dishes!”

“I would argue there’s a bit of messiness in every scientific discipline,” says Rose. Her mouth quirks a little at the corner. Her hands unfold, opening like dahlias, blooming against the pale surface of the table.

“Yeah,” you say, almost a sigh, before you can stop yourself.

Jade turns to look at you, smiling expectantly. You still can’t see Rose’s eyes behind the vent, and you have no idea what she’s looking at, what she’s thinking or feeling. An awkward silence is beginning to stretch. You have no choice but to barrel on.

“But I prefer physics as well,” you say. “There’s something about it that can shock you, or… I don’t know. That can make you small. It’s like the grammar of the universe, or its ancient history. I mean, people say biology is the study of life, but doesn’t life start with the movement of stars?”

What are you talking about? What is this nonsense that’s suddenly pouring out of you? Is this supposed to be clever? Is this supposed to be _poetry_? You shut you mouth up tight, as if to take back the words.

Rose tips her head to the right, tilting down to look at you under the black shape of the vent. She’s looking at you like she wants to gather you up and keep you a secret. She’s looking at you with purple and consuming eyes.

“Yeah!” Jade says, and claps you enthusiastically on the shoulder. “That’s what I’m talking about!!!”

\--

After class, miraculously, terrifyingly, the two of them walk you to your sixth-period study hall.

“You’re on the lacrosse team too, right?” Rose asks. She and Jade are walking arm in arm. She tucks her hair behind her ears, one side at a time, with her black-nailed hand. It’s not a bashful gesture, like it is when you do it.

“Yeah,” you manage.

She smiles at you. “I can imagine that gets a little tiring. I have difficulty keeping up with Jade’s boundless energy myself most of the time.”

“Ha ha,” Jade says dryly. She leans around Rose to look at you. “Hey, when do you want to meet for the project? I was thinking—“

“Tonight,” Rose says, cutting her off. “I think we should meet tonight.”

“Um,” you stutter out. Jade, brow furrowed, is watching Rose’s face carefully.

“If that works for you,” she says.

“Okay,” you say, breathlessly. Jade, looking between you, lets out a sudden bark of laughter. You jump.

“I’ll see you then,” Rose says, and she rests her warm hand against your shoulder for a second. Her eyes are on you again, piercing and purple, and you can’t look away.

You trip on something on the ground you’re not looking at and fall, toppling embarrassingly and completely over.

Your right knee and elbow smack the floor hard.

“Oh my god!” Jade says.

Rose kneels next to you. “Are you alright?” she asks.

You scramble to your feet, mutter something, and hightail it out of there.

\--

You finally find your sister at her locker, arguing with Kankri Vantas about social justice. “Porrim,” you say. You’re a bit of a mess. You’re crumbling where you stand. You have a bruise on your elbow and a run in the right leg of your tights.

“Come with me,” she says, abandoning a fuming Kankri and shepherding you down the hallway to the second floor girls’ bathroom.

You slump against the sink, hiccupping, trying not to cry. Porrim smooths her hand over your back, making soft shushing noises and comforting you.

Damara was there when you came in, smoking with the window cracked open. She watches the two of you steadily, with a disinterested eye.

“That was incredibly stupid,” you say, sniffling.

“I know, I know” says Porrim. “It’ll all be alright.”

“And now I’m being even stupider!” You look at yourself in the mirror through someone’s purple marker graffiti. Damara flicks ash onto the tiled floor.

“Yeah, a bit,” Porrim says, smiling, and you laugh a little, through your unshed tears, despite yourself.

\--

Rose’s mom lets you into the house and points you in the direction of Rose’s room. There’s a strange bronzed vacuum cleaner in the living room, a threatening note on the sofa, and stacks of books all up the stairs. You wonder, not for the first time, about all the things you don’t know about Rose Lalonde.

As you reach the upper-floor hallway, you hear Jade’s voice.

“Come on, admit it!” she’s saying.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Rose’s voice replies, soft and defiant.

You stop just outside the room, and knock on the doorframe to announce your presence.

“Hi, Kanaya!” Jade says, beckoning you into the room. She’s sitting on Rose’s bed, and she pats the bedspread next to her. As you slide your backpack off your shoulder and sit down, she’s giving Rose a smiling look that you can’t understand.

“Hello, Jade,” you say. “Rose.”

“How’s the knee?” Rose asks.

“Oh yeah, I forgot,” says Jade, and then grins at you. “That was a pretty epic wipeout.”

“I’m fine,” you say. Jade claps you on the back and starts to pull out her notebooks and worksheets from her backpack. You do the same.

“Alright!” Jade says. “Let’s brainstorm!”

As the three of you start work on the project, Rose picks up a clementine off her desk, and begins to open it up. She peels the skin carefully, so that it dangles in one unbroken piece, and the air smells sweet and acidic.

“Throw me a piece,” Jade says eventually, as Rose carefully separates the sections. You’re lost in the movements of her hands, her brown fingers pulling the clementine apart.

“No,” says Rose.

“Oh, come on,” Jade whines. “Selfish!”

“There’s a kind of special magic to selfishness,” Rose says. “Having something entirely. Making something yours.” Her eyes are on you, and you bite your lip unconsciously as she bites the clementine.

“Jesus,” Jade says under her breath. You start and turn to look at her, blinking.

“What?” you ask.

“Oh, _come on_ ,” she says.

“Jade,” Rose says, a warning in her voice. You turn your gaze between them, wondering if you’ve missed something.

Jade dumps her school stuff unceremoniously on the ground, and swings around to sit right in your lap, her legs bracketing you, her hair falling around your faces like a curtain, her mouth close to your ear.

You’ve definitely missed something.

“Don’t worry,” Jade says her breath warm on the side of your face. “I’m not propositioning you. I’m helping you out.” And, after a quick smiling glance over her shoulder, she leans forward to kiss you softly on the mouth, no particular passion behind it, lips a little chapped.

Suddenly, she’s gone, laughing as she’s pulled away and tumbling back onto her side on the bed next to you.

Rose, purple eyes sharp and hands still wet with citrus, has taken her place.

She kisses you. She crowds you up against the wall, and smiles into your mouth, and doesn’t close her eyes.

You kiss her back. You open up like a clementine. You pour the kiss into her, unpeeling the tough skin of yourself, gasping your love and everything you are into her warm lips, her warm mouth. She can hear your heart, usually so petrified, beating out a few quiet beats. She can smell the rush of your borrowed blood. She knows who you are, and she can see the yellow sun rising in the cavern of your mind.

She pinches the kiss off with a secret smile.

“I’m sorry,” she says. “I should have asked. Is this okay?”

“Yes,” you say, breathing hard. You look over at Jade, terrified, questioning. “Is this okay with you?”

“Hey,” Jade says, lounging on the bed with her head propped up on one arm, popping a piece of clementine into her mouth, “I’m not the one who can’t share.” And she smiles.

\--

Porrim sits at her usual spot, her arms arranged artfully, her legs crossed elegantly even though no one can see them under the table.

It’s still raining outside, a soft, endless rain that fills the sky, hisses against the pavement, and makes Feferi Peixes frown. Everything is damp and hazy and soft.

Porrim’s looking across the lunch room, where her sister is sitting with her new girlfriend and her girlfriend’s girlfriend. Jade has her head resting on Rose’s shoulder. Kanaya and Rose have intertwined their hands.

“Ah, young love,” she says. It’s something she’s always wanted to say, and she smiles, satisfied with herself.

Damara snorts, tearing apart her peanut-butter-and-banana sandwich.

“What?” Latula asks too loudly, headphones over her ears.

 

**Author's Note:**

> Some things that aren’t immediately apparent in this fic but should be made clear: Ectobio siblings are all siblings proper, and the same goes for troll dancestors. The high school that they go to is probably called something dumb like Earthternia High. Though not marked as such, this fic is many ways a weird Teen Wolf/Twilight AU. Kanaya and Porrim are probably vampires, Jade is probably a werewolf, Rose is probably a witch, and (unrelated to previous, but equally important) Latula is definitely a vegan.

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [Psychology, Forbidden Fruit, and the Unraveling of Clementines](https://archiveofourown.org/works/7589191) by [ghostlyfemslash](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ghostlyfemslash/pseuds/ghostlyfemslash)
  * [where the gardens grow](https://archiveofourown.org/works/7647268) by [graveExcitement (arachnids)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/arachnids/pseuds/graveExcitement)




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